Health & Fitness

You might live in Louisiana or any place in the US and hear people bash themselves for being overweight or out of shape. That doesn’t help or change a thing. In fact, it’s counterproductive. You need to love your body at every weight. Loving your body doesn’t mean you’re accepting being overweight permanently. It means you want what’s best for your body, which includes healthy eating and a program of regular exercise.

Hating yourself is counterproductive.

Why would you want to treat anyone you hate to things that would benefit them and make them better? That’s true about people and could also be true about how you treat your body. Your weight doesn’t define you, but how you treat yourself tells the world how you value yourself. If you’re constantly your own worst enemy, it can create disappointment and discouragement. That can lead to depression, emotional eating and even eating disorders.

Does fear cause the self-criticism?

Maybe you think you’ll never reach your goal and you want to let people know that you aren’t okay with how you look. Have you ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy? People often convince themselves that they’re destined to be overweight and that can lead to quitting trying in discouragement. You might go so far as to prove yourself right and self-sabotage.

Get rid of the fat hate and see yourself beyond your present body.

It’s time to be kind to yourself. The more positive you are about you and your ability to become healthier, the more likely you’ll succeed. If you had a pet or child that needed help to get healthier, your love for them would make you want to help. Be that caring person to yourself. The more you shame yourself, the more the excess weight becomes part of your persona and the harder it is to lose.

• Fat isn’t a person. It’s not good or bad. It just is. Ignore it and focus more on eating healthy, sticking with a program of exercise and getting plenty of water and sleep. Living a healthy lifestyle will do the trick.
• The minute you give up the shame and quit identifying as a fat person is the day you start living your life and losing weight. Accepting yourself doesn’t mean you’re choosing to be overweight forever, but it is what it is today.
• Find ways to treat yourself better that don’t involve food. Sometimes, parents unconsciously teach us to reward ourselves with food with celebration cakes or ice cream for good behavior. Learn to feel the enjoyment of taking charge of your body and making it healthier.
• Mentally give yourself love and appreciate the things you do to make yourself healthier. It can help prevent problems that occur when you have self-hate, like food addictions, eating disorders, yo-yo dieting and emotional eating.

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There may be a liar in your house. It could be your bathroom scale. While it may always weigh you properly and give the right weight, sometimes that doesn’t give the whole picture. Sometimes, particularly when starting a program of fitness, checking your weight too frequently can discourage you and even cause you to quit. If any of that describes you, it’s time for a no scale lifestyle.

Your scales can trick you into thinking you’re not making progress.

If a program of regular exercise is part of your fitness routine, as well as a healthy diet, your scales can trick you and make you feel defeated. You might have lost a lot of fat, but put on muscle, which weighs more per cubic inch. A body with mostly muscle and little fat may weigh the same as someone with mostly fat and little muscle, but the muscular body will look thinner and will take a smaller clothing size. It’s time to use measurements as a guide, since the scales may not show your progress.

Getting in shape takes a while and you become accustomed to the changes you see.

If you never looked in a mirror for several months while you’re getting in shape, the minute you do see yourself, you’ll notice the difference. Since the changes are slower and tiny day by day, you often miss how your appearance changes. If you want to get that perspective, start by taking a picture once a month. Do it in clothing that shows your body and in the same place each time. When you start feeling discouraged, just look back at your pictures and you’ll see the difference.

Take a measurement around your middle.

If you want to be healthier, you need to address your visceral fat. Visceral fat collects around your mid-section and is deep fat that crowds your organs and causes serious conditions. If getting healthy is your goal, then your circumference measurement is the most important of all. While you’re at it, record the measurements of other areas, like your upper arms, calves, chest, thighs, hips, shoulders and neck. Track your measurements, taking them once every two weeks to once a month.

• Does your version of a healthier you have lower blood pressure, then track your blood pressure progress. Is it based on having more energy, once a month see how many flights of stair you can take without being winded.
• Are you getting more done in less time? Yes, the fitter you are, the more productive you are. You can measure that productivity by recording how long it takes to do any task from cleaning the house to doing mental tasks, since fitness also boosts brain power.
• A lot of things can cause short term weight fluctuations. Water retention makes a difference and so does the time of day you weigh. Try weighing once every week at the same time of day. Usually, morning is the best time.
• You can track your gains in a number of ways or use two or three types of tracking. No matter how you track your progress, if you’re not seeing results, either you’re not faithful to the program or it’s time to change.

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You don’t have to take a long road trip or even travel far, traveling can set your weight loss and healthy eating plans back months. It doesn’t have to happen that way, you can eat well while traveling if you plan ahead, even if you normally use food processors or juicers to make your normal diet. Whether traveling by plane, train or automobile, there are ways to help you stay on course for a healthy eating plan. The first place to check are the “things to do” sites that offer information about the restaurants in the town or along the way.

Pack a meal or healthy snacks.

You might not be able to bring all your meals, especially if you’re flying, but you can bring snacks. Having healthy snacks available, can help you no matter how you travel. You don’t have to pay a fortune at airport restaurants or be ravenous at supper if you have snacks that can be a supplement. If you’re driving, have a cooler that’s filled with healthy food, including regular meals. You can stop along the ways and exercise your legs a bit and have a picnic lunch. Refill your cooler by stopping at a local grocery and restocking your snack and meal supplies.

Plan, plan, plan.

If you’re driving, you probably have used some type of app to map your journey, now take it a step further. Check out the restaurants along the way to find the ones that have an online menu and see if the food is healthy. Don’t leave your meal to chance. Don’t wait until everyone is ready to eat the first food they see, which can be anything from fried chicken to belly bombers. Even if you have to stop a little early, it’s okay. Flying into an area requires just as much planning. Check the restaurants close to your destination to find the ones that offer the healthiest menu.

When eating in a restaurant, choose off the menu carefully.

If the restaurant has an online menu, all the better. Check it out when you’re not hungry to make the best choice. If you’re staying at a hotel or motel and have a vehicle, you can actually stop and check out the menu. Avoid fried foods and desserts. Stick with grilled food and lean meats. If you’re opting for a sandwich, choose real meat, not processed cured meat. Go with extra veggies and avoid fried if you have the option. Stick with water, unsweetened tea or coffee for drinks.

• Some healthy foods that travel well in a cooler include raw veggies and hummus dip, hard-boiled eggs, almonds and other nuts and fruit. Eat snacks more frequently when traveling and avoid skipping meals.
• You can’t get bottled water through airport security, but you can get an empty bottle through. Bring an empty bottle and fill it after security checks at a fountain so you can hydrate on the plane. No matter how you travel, staying hydrated is important.
• If you’re flying, carry a large purse as your personal item and put your regular purse inside it. That leaves room for snacks like cashews, pistachios and fresh fruit, like bananas. Nuts are a good source of protein and compact enough to carry.
• If you’re traveling by car, check for local farmer’s markets or be on the watch for roadside stands. It can be fun to seek out healthy food that’s straight from the farm.

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While going to the gym or doing a workout at home is ideal, you can also exercise during the workday. That can be especially important when you have to work late or attend a function at your child’s school right after work. One way to avoid the problem is to exercise the first thing in the morning, but in a busy household, that’s not always an option. Even when you do work hard to keep a workout schedule, sometimes things go awry. You can have a handy list of ways to exercise during the work day when that happens.

Create the emergency option for those tough days.

We offer hundreds of exercise videos, which also include routines you can do. Look for ones you can do in the office. They might be exercises that are familiar, like squats and lunges or stretches that aren’t as familiar to you, so learn to do the routine at home so you’re prepared and can breeze through it easily with the right form.

You don’t have to do a full half hour workout at a time.

You can break it up in session, as long as you get your body moving. One study showed that people who did twelve five minute workouts throughout the day actually got better results than those who worked out a straight hour a day. In another study, high intensity exercise in short bursts helped people lose body weight compared to those who did nothing. That’s the key. You have to keep moving and moving fast with more intensity is even better.

Do some exercises at your desk.

Chair dips are excellent for the upper body. Working out the kinks in your shoulders and triceps with head rolls immediately afterward gets you ready to go back to work. How do you do a chair dip? Slide your bottom toward the edge of the chair, make sure it’s one that’s stable and not on rollers. Your palms should be on the edge of the chair or holding the sides. Lift forward and slowly lower your body off the chair. Holding it suspended for a count of five and then return to the chair and repeat.

Never underestimate the power of walking. Just getting your body moving is important. You can walk during lunch hour to get in exercise. Vary the speed of your walk, pushing it hard for a minute and then going at a recovery pace for four and back to high intensity walking.

• Whether you’re sitting at a desk or standing, making arm circles boosts your circulation and can relieve muscle tension to make the day better.
• Two exercises you can do at your desk that are subtle are sitting bicycle and seated leg lifts. Just lift your legs and hold them straight out for as long as you can, then slowly lower for leg lifts.
• Practice posture and do isometric exercises for a flat stomach. Sit up straight with shoulders back, then pull in your stomach as far as you can and hold. Doing it throughout the day improves your posture and builds core muscles.
• If you have a private place at the office, do some jumping jacks, wall sits, squats or lunges, five repetitions each, one right after another. Aim for several sets at a time. Take time to make time to move whenever you have a chance. It’s all good.

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Whether you live in Louisiana, Texas, or any other part of the country, eating healthier does mean giving up foods with added sugar, but that doesn’t mean you should put in artificial sweeteners instead. While there are a lot of health issues from eating too much sugar, there are different ones that occur when you substitute the chemical artificial sweetener. Some of these may actually be worse! In fact, a recent study showed that drinking diet drinks with artificial sweeteners may actually be worse for you than drinking ones with regular sugar.

Each type of sweetener has different side effects.

There’s no one answer to the side effects of artificial sweeteners because each sweetener has different side effects. The amount you ingest also makes a difference. Side effects also depend on the person’s sensitivity. Some sweeteners tend to give people rashes, while others may give digestive symptoms. In fact, one sugarless gummy bear sold on the internet had the side effect of explosive diarrhea as noted in the product reviews. While it was advertised as sugar free, it had sugar alcohol, which also spikes blood sugar levels, besides causing digestive upsets.

Recent studies show that drinking diet drinks may be dangerous to your health.

Visceral fat is fat around your middle that’s the most dangerous type of fat. New studies show that people drinking the most diet drinks using artificial sweeteners had the most visceral fat, compared to those who never drank diet drinks or seldom drank them. The measure was of the waist circumference, a good indicator. Scientists believe it may be because artificial sweeteners interfered with metabolic functioning. In fact, tricking the body into reacting the same way it does with sugar might also be the issue.

While Xylitol and erythritol are alcohol sugars that are made from fruit, they’re not considered natural sugar.

There are natural sugars that aren’t as harmful as sugar substitutes and aren’t artificial. The juice from the Stevia rebaudiana plant is one of those. It’s called Stevia and is used as a medicine by some. It’s 100 times sweeter than sugar but has been used to help lower blood sugar levels in diabetics, plus known to lower blood pressure by as much as 14%. If you have artificial sweetened food that contains xylitol and a family dog, beware. It’s extremely dangerous for dogs to consume it.

• There are some scientific links that indicate some artificial sweeteners may contribute to diseases like cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, Alzheimer’s, autism, MS, systemic lupus and Parkinson’s.
• Simply giving up sugar is difficult, but very worth it. It takes a while, but eventually your taste buds will go back to normal and you can taste the natural sweetness of fruit or a delicious dessert.
• As each artificial sweetener is found dangerous, companies replace them with new ones. When aspartame’s safety came into question, companies replaced it with sucralose and Ace-K, which now are under scrutiny for serious health concerns.
• Check labels thoroughly to avoid ingesting artificial sweeteners. They’re in everything from children’s vitamins and cough syrup to toothpaste.

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